Terra Linda Kaiser plans to open new emergency center June 2014

RARELY DO PEOPLE express a fondness for visiting the emergency room, but patients are anticipated to have a more comfortable experience when the Kaiser Permanente campus in Terra Linda opens its new multi-million dollar emergency center in June 2014.

Construction workers have completed a four-story parking structure and are in the process of pouring a concrete foundation and laying the underground plumbing for the future 17,550-square-foot emergency center. About 8 percent of the center is complete after design changes pushed the original finalization date back by about six months.

Patricia Kendall, Kaiser medical group administrator, said workers can't wait for the new building to be done. She declined to comment on how much the project has cost.

"It's going to give us almost three times the space we have now," Kendall said. "It'll give us bigger rooms that will be more comfortable for our patients."

Kaiser's project was unanimously approved by the San Rafael Planning Commission in April 2011, after it was proposed in December 2010. The emergency room is being built at the site of an existing general services building, of which a 14,740-square-foot portion has been demolished.

Kendall said the emergency room is returning to the north end of the hospital, where it was originally housed before being relocated in 1976. She said hospital officials are trying to decide what to do with the existing emergency department building once services move to the new center.

"We may expand our cardiac catheterization lab and move an MRI into the building, so we'll have an MRI in-house," Kendall said.

As part of the new building and overall plan, health care workers hope to see and treat emergency patients faster.

Gary Mizono, Kaiser physician-in-chief, said the goal is to assess patients immediately and get those with minor injuries, such as a small cut or sprained ankle, in and out of the hospital within an hour. They want to have the waiting room populated with family members of patients, instead of patients themselves.

"We don't want people sitting in a waiting room. We want examinations and work-ups started immediately," Mizono said.

Kendall agreed.

"We're trying to make an oxymoron out of the term 'waiting room,'" she said.

Mizono said the emergency department will continue to be approved for trauma care, serve as a certified stroke center and be a receiving center for patients with serious heart issues.

"We're very excited to have a brand-new facility to take care of our members and participate in the county's trauma program," Mizono said, adding that the program allows Kaiser to take trauma patients if Marin General Hospital is unavailable.

Neighbors near the medical building said they haven't been negatively impacted by the emergency department's construction, but are looking forward to its completion.

Nicole Kowalski said the workers at the site are very aware of their surroundings and appear to be doing a good job of watching out for passersby.

"I walk by there almost every day and it seems relatively safe," Kowalski said.

Jamie Padimos said she's relieved the new parking garage is in place, allowing people to park at the hospital instead of on Montecillo Road where she lives.

"It actually had a bigger impact when they didn't have the parking garage," Padimos said. "It was a big problem. We often couldn't use our own parking."

Parking around the campus has been a hot-button issue for years with neighbors complaining that hospital workers and patients clog surrounding streets. The four-story parking garage broke ground in June 2011 and was finished July 2012. Once everything is complete, there will be a total of 1,007 parking spaces at the hospital — an additional 32 spaces more than originally planned in 2011.

In addition, Kaiser anticipates installing six electric vehicle charging stations in the new parking structure by the end of the year.

Despite some design changes that delayed the project's completion date, Kendall said construction is going well.